Monday, December 26, 2011

today i've decided to stop and take time to take pictures of my favorite San Francisco mural .it was quite a challenge because the actual mural is now on private property and on a very busy street that rarely sees pedestrians because of traffic.the mural was executed in 1936 by Don Clever and restored in 1999 for our enjoyment........

Don was a self taught Canadian born artist who moved in the US in 1920 .he settled in SF where he spent most of his life ......Don Clever died in 2001

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Today's post will feature one of my favorite illustrator the great Alex Gard and his USN trilogy . From "sailors in boots", "getting salty" to "sick bay" Gard illustrated the journal of a young graduate of the Russian Naval Academy who joined the U.S. Navy as it prepared to enter the war in Europe. It starts: To all the men who went through the boots training, Especially to Platoon 512, of 1942 Norfolk training station. The illustrations are just perfect.

Alex Gard was born in Russia in 1900 .During World War I, Gard worked on a Russian destroyer where he was constantly drawing caricatures of everyone on board.He then left for France after the Bolshevik Revolution, drawing cartoons for the French newspaper Le Matin in the 1920s. Moving again, this time to the US, he was hired to create caricatures of Broadway and other celebrities at Sardi's Restaurant in New York City. Vincent Sardi,the owner, and Gard had a contract that stated that Gard would make patron's caricatures in exchange for one meal a day at the restaurant. Altogether, he drew over 700.The first official caricature by Gard was of Ted Healy, the vaudevillian of Three Stooges fame. When Sardi’s son, Vincent Sardi, Jr. took over restaurant operations in 1947, he offered to change the terms of Gard's agreement. Gard refused, and continued to draw the caricatures in exchange for meals until his death.

this example has two,shield like "tactical markings" painted on the sleeves .don't know what they mean...

early 1944 NXsx tag

from left to right :M43 TALON zipper,used on the last blue deck jacket and the first green N1.the middle one is a M44 TALON,as used late WW2 up to Korean war .the last is the M47 seen and used up to the end......

60's tag as featured on the last runs

Today's post will focus on one of the most popular jacket on the auction blog nowadays :The US NAVY N1 deck jacket.

Even if the last of the blue deck jacket the M43 model can be considered, by some ,as the first N1 as it was the blueprint of the iconic jacket,the real N1 [green] saw it's first production in the first month of 1944 and saw action during D DAY along the coasts of Normandy.For a very brief period it was manufactured retaining all the details featured on the blue M43 :alpaca lining to the end of the cuffs, extra stitching on the sleeves and additional loops on the inside at the waist and underarms .These details disappeared fast,perhaps for material conservation,making this first N1 quite rare and for D DAY USN collectors a must have in any condition. Pictures above ,also show one of the last N1 manufactured in the 60's,before the jacket was replaced by the A2 deck jacket.....